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The Nordkette Wetterleuchten Festival is a cosy open air on Seegrube (1905 m) over Innsbruck. You get two days of electronic sounds, served with THE VIEW, down to city and far into the Alps at night. A truly amazing experience!

This year’s Alps Festival Wetterleuchten has been stunning! The weather was stable and actually perfect, with true Wetterleuchten – thunderstorms seen from the distance – over other regions of the Alps.

Overlooking the festivities of the Nordkette Wetterleuchten Eletronic Music Festival over Innsbruck, Austria

There have been two tents with great, bassy electronic beats, in the bigger tent mashed up with some classics from time to time. Sound was great and dancing actually lots of fun! Everywhere you go up there, you find the tents of the people who stay there over-night. A mild night with around 18 °C on 1905 m, pretty warm and comfortable.

Chillout at the campfireThe big campfire, chillout and warm-up while the bass vibrates in ears and body.

People are in a good mood, but many decide to take the cable car home before 3 A.M. I sit down at the campfire for a while, get back to dancing and decide to leave with the last cable car at 3 A.M. as well. It takes me another hour to get home, but the walk was worth it. To be continued…

A closeup of Innsbruck never hurts. I love the mood up there and it makes this city unique!

The whole festival at a glance. You can see some of the tents in the middle, great place to sleep.

The small Festival Tent with hard beats

The View over Innsbruck

Chillout at the campfire

The cablecar, which guarantees our enjoyment summer and winter

The big campfire, chill and warm-up while the bass vibrates in ears and body.

The View and the tents of campers

The tent and party folks again. I will show you the big tent soon as well

Overlooking the festivities of the Nordkette Wetterleuchten Eletronic Music Festival over Innsbruck, Austria

The re-unification of Germany is the glorious history of November 9th in German History. There have been different times at this date, but today this entry brings some impressions from my childhood in West-Berlin, some thoughts and of course photography of the 25th anniversary celebrations.

“I’m a child of an island in the red sea.” That’s what I always stated, when we had discussions about East vs West in the past. This is a long topic and the re-unification was not always as smooth as it might seem to you.

We had many discussions with our East German counterparts, because we – from the West – had everything and were arrogant – from the point of view of East Germans. Heard that the last time, when the East Germans behaved exactly like that, getting everything we prepared as group work and being arrogant when questioned for doing so in the studies of Pharmacy in Berlin – “Now it’s our turn, you had everything, all the years before” was the unacceptable answer. Maybe they have been right, but it was not my fault or the fault of my colleagues from the West, we have been small children by that time. That’s already nearly ten years in the past – and the sad thing about it is, that all the glory of a moment and all the hope and good will is replaced by routine – getting back to the routes, forgetting what was important, all too fast.

Today it’s hard to distinct who is East and who is West German – it does not matter anymore or the importance vanishes more and more, at least in my generation. It’s good like that, we are one people.

“I’m a child from an island in the Red Sea.”

By employing this phrase I stated, that I am from West-Berlin, I was born and raised there. Former West-Berlin to be adequate. The place in Germany which was surrounded by the soviet occupancy – the red and since it was a big area surrounding West-Berlin the metaphor “Island in the Red Sea” made sense to me. The DDR (GDR, i.e. German Democratic Republic) was under Russian patronage, but still controlled by their own East German people – the secretary general and his executive the VoPos (Volkspolizei, i.e. peoples police). West-Berlin was a spot of Western life in the middle of the communistic driven DDR – connected to East-Berlin via closed bridges everywhere, with the most prominent Oberbaumbrücke, Bornholmer Brücke in the inner city and Glienicker Brücke towards Brandenburg – those are bridges over the rivers Spree and Havel.

I come from the former British sector, from Berlin-Wilmersdorf. I still remember radio stations like RIAS which means Radio In the American Sector. I still know the surveillance station on Teufelsberg as a guarded stronghold of the American – or allied – forces. I know the term “Rosinenbomber” and connected to that, the importance of the Airport Berlin-Tempelhof, which was the only airport in the beginning, right after the wall was built in August 1961, to bring supplies and food to West-Berlin. Visit the memorial park while you are in Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie and Brandenburger Tor, to see the most popular places, where the separation was obviously visible – and Eastside Gallery to see authentic left overs of the Berlin Wall.

While for us in West-Berlin traveling was possible during the whole time, it was not as comfortable as today. We had to pass the DDR, on the corridors that were open to the West-Berliners and Western Germans to enter Berlin. This act – yes it was! – was called Transit. You had to wait at the border leaving West-Berlin and again at the border to enter BRD, or Western Germany, as it was called in the past. And this Transit was not always smooth, some days you had to wait hours to be allowed to reenter or they didn’t let you at all. I remember one night in winter, when I was a small kid. We have not been allowed to enter BRD and had to wait at the border for ten hours, before it was reopened. The allied forces handed soup and sheets for the people waiting and the VoPos checked every car with dogs for fleeing people. That was reality and I still have this image on my mind of soldiers digging our luggage, a submachine gun over the shoulder, the dogs in the car. On the highways of DDR, the speed limit was 100 km/h, unimaginably slow compared to today – for Germany, that is known for the fun Autobahn experience. When you took your pets, you had to present them to the veterinaries at the border and pay a fee. When you wanted to enter the DDR to visit relatives or friends, you had to pay a fee and change Deutsche Mark into Ostmark. Life was certainly different.

I was six years old, when the wall fell on November 9th 1989. I don’t remember too much anymore. I just remember everyone went nuts. There was a great excitement in the air. My mum went alone, she left us at home on this night. I think it is a pity. I think we would still remember what happened nowadays. But a couple of days after the fall of the wall, we went into East-Berlin to discover it. What I remember: The smell was so different! It smelled like coal, burning coal. The wall must have prevented the smell to come over. And the Trabbies smelled horrific by that time as well. Everything was grey and rundown, compared to today where the eastern parts of Berlin shine so beautiful. You could still see the bullet holes in the walls of many buildings, the holes which date back to WW II.

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We visited Friedrichstadtpalast and witnessed a suite of Tschaikowski, played by the former East-German variete, and we visited the Naturkundemuseum in Mitte. That have been the first two events respectively places I remember in accordance to the re-unification. And today?

Everything seems normal! Berlin is one, no doubt about that. But I still have the feeling it is different when you hit the East German countryside in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. But it is good that it is like it is and our children will hopefully realize, that times have been different, will hopefully understand, that everyone can be thankful, this never ending cold-war is over, once and for all. What we should learn out of that? Make Love not war, everywhere on this planet. It might be a special case in the history of Germany, with all the guilt, the forgiveness, the separation and finally the re-unification – November 9th is a dark and a glorious date – has both sides in German history and a date which will always be bound to that history. But the principle I address of making love and not war is the same, no matter about what wall we are talking, no matter which religion we believe in and which economic interests are on our list. People have to understand that, finally, once and for all.

And to visualize the celebration of the 25th anniversary of this epic event, I took some pictures, mainly in Mauerpark of the event itself, some close to Bornholmer Brücke and some the days before along Oberbaumbrücke and Eastside Gallery,as well as atBrandenburger Tor, where the rests of the inner Berlin wall can be found. I wrote about the area between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain – including Eastside Gallery – a couple of month ago and you can find the entry here.

Autumn in Berlin is mostly grey and wet. The colors of the leaves bring some welcome change and when the sun comes out, Berlin offers some most beautiful going places, which you should not miss. In this entry Charlottenburg Castle and the Teufelsberg are presented.

Over the last time lots of reports and pictures of the Alps in autumn colors could be found here. Now it is time for a little round-up from Berlin. The autumn in Berlin is mostly grey and wet, as the winter is. The summer time is certainly the more beautiful time in this city. Still, Berlin is a place with lots of parks and green areas, so you find the autumn colors as well, like in the forests and on the mountains of Austria.

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Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a beautiful place and every season offers another point of view. In autumn, the many alleys in the park – which is still free of charge – and in Schloss Strasse, leading towards the castle, are colored in yellow from the Tilia trees. Those trees produce an awesome smell in spring, with pale green, new leaves. They offer shadow in summer and in autumn they draw a colorful component into you photos. You should visit the palace, when you got time to do so. In winter, starting from Advent, a great christmas market takes place on the grounds in front of the main building. It’s a beautiful christmas market and besides hot wine you get treats, souvenirs and good food. And if you are first time visitor to this palace, make sure to take the tour. The description, of what you can see, is linked above.

This is the view over Berlin‘s biggest forest, the Grunewald. You will have a great overview from Teufelsberg, a hill built of debris after WW II, today a green oasis with top notch views over the whole city, predominantly former West-Berlin, but at night or when the sight is clear, even deep into former East-Berlin. You will see all the main sights of the city sticking out, a skyline per excellence. The depicted view is towardsWannsee and on the right you can see the Grunewaldturm. This is a classical November depiction, if you are lucky and the sun comes through. It’s certainly beautiful, when it does.

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And this is a forest closeup taken with a 50 – 200 mm objective. It shows the autumn colors in detail. Attached you find the obligatory gallery, with many more pictures of Berlin‘s autumn. Expect another Special later today about the re-unification of Germany, 25 years ago and for next week an entry about the street art you can find on Teufelsberg.

A former border of Berlin, enlighted and in autumn colors

Charlottenburg Palace

Surveillance of the past, Teufelsberg

Grunewald

T-Berg Shining Pt. II

T-Berg Shining, the sun breaks through over Grunewald and illuminates Wannsee and Grunewaldturm

This night will remain in our memories. This night caused us lots of worries, lots of joy and happiness. The Football World Championship in Brazil 2014 ended this night, with a close but deserved victory of our team, of my team, Germany, which we lovingly cheer to as SCHLAND – against a very strong and minimalistic Argentinian team!

The game was so close and Argentina really played strong, so strong that my friends and I jumped up from the couch several times, shouting at the screen. Imagine this scenery, it is somehow really ridiculous, but that is football! After the game’s end there was no time to waste to get into Berlin’s epicenter to Zoologischer Garten.

WIR SIND WELTMEISTER! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

The way to Zoo in the S Bahn was memorable, all the people were singing together and jumping in the wagons. Thousands of people were on the streets celebrating. Fireworks exploded every second. The cops controlled everything, without showing emotions.

In the middle of all the festivities a good amount of palestine guys celebrated with us, reminding of the the war which goes on between Isreal and the palestine people. Over all everything was loud, happy and very peaceful, just epic!!! It is an incredible feeling to be part of it and a long time, since 1996, that we were allowed to celebrate our football team again, how beautiful. Berlin is, not just because of the diversity, a great place to celebrate an event like that! Thank you DFB-team, thank you Brazil for all the beautiful images during the last four weeks. May the next Championship be as epic as this one!

This is my first entry about Berlin. My homecity, the place where I grew up. Since I don’t live there anymore on a regular basis, I see the vast difference and the progress, which changes the city the whole time. I will continue to give some insight into my city, give recommendations to visit places which are off the cultural or nightlife track.

Since I am a Berliner and always will be, I want to take my time this time I visit my hometown, to capture some beautiful pictures and give some recommendations for you, to explore this city aside the endless cultural program and aside the overwhelming nightlife opportunities.

This is the skyline of Berlin seen from S Bahnhof Warschauer Straße. Yesterday was a great sunset and I took this picture, while the clouds opened up a bit. I overworked the picture with GIMP to give some more focus on the contrast.

I visited the Eastside Gallery, since I was there already. Haven’t done that for a couple of years! The Oberbaumbrücke, connecting former East- and West-Berlin, is a sight for itself, as are the wallpaintings all over the former Berlin Wall. In the evening hours you can listen to artists, playing their music directly on Oberbaumbrücke and at U Bahnhof Warschauer Straße. The Matrix, which I visited back in the day, when I was 18 years old, still exists and seems to be a classic for the American tourists. The Club of Visionariesis a very nice place and it is reopened. Make sure to bring ladies, when you go there, it is much easier to get in.

The Eastside Gallery, rest of the Berlin wall, covered all over with beautiful and theme related graphiti – Peace, Reunition and Love.Oberbaumbrücke connecting Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain

The whole area offers plentiful Bars, Cafes and Nightclubs. The Watergate, which is popular with tourists, the classic partly open air, partly inside Club Lido, where you can witness cool Bands playing. Some Jazz Bars, like Badehaus in Friedrichshain, and many restaurants can be found around this area. Just go there and get inspired, don’t plan too much, just follow the flow and enjoy this part of Berlin. And take a closer look at the rest of the German Wall, this is true history that you just find in Cypress, Pjönjang and Israel to the Palästinian parts… The advantage of the German wall… It is past and gone.

As a great place for your fast food on the way visit Burgeramt Frühstücksklub. You will find a big variety of burgers, veggie included. A great place for Kafta, arabian meatballs with salad, is Kreuzberger Köfte Burger in the Wrangelstraße. Get it without the sauce, since you will experience the spice of the meat better.